Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1950 to 1953 and obtained his state examination. At the same time he studied philosophy in Cologne. Together with Otto Piene, Mack founded the avant-garde artist group ZERO in 1957. Instead of classical compositions, it confronts the viewer with completely new and provocative aspects: Light, movement, space, time, dynamics, vibration and serial structures come to the fore. Light and movement are also the central themes of other works of art, such as the “Sahara Project”, which Mack conceived in 1958 and partially realised in 1968/69. In the 1980s Mack received numerous commissions to design public spaces. In 1984, for example, the “Columne pro caelo” was erected in front of Cologne Cathedral and in 1989 he designed the Platz der Deutschen Einheit in Düsseldorf. Inspired by the sun colours of his studio on Ibiza, Mack devoted himself intensively to painting again from 1991, calling his works “Chromatic Constellations”. Mack receives the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his complete works and for his work as an ambassador of cultures. His works are in around 100 public collections all over the world.